The Deep Purple song Rithcie Blackmore called “banal”
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(Credit: Alamy)
A lot of the time, we overcomplicate musicians, which is fair enough. When you listen to some of the complicated music that bands like Deep Purple and artists such as Ritchie Blackmore were responsible for, it can be so out of this world that when it comes to motivation and creation, we assume that the process must also be otherworldly, but that’s not the case.
Ritchie Blackmore, while renowned for having an ego and occasionally being difficult to work with, is actually a very easy man to understand. When you listen to his music and read his subsequent interviews about various tracks, it’s clear that he wants genuine passion in his music, and he wants said music to both challenge and excite him. It’s as simple as that. Take all of his discography, and it boils down to those very simple elements.
For instance, when Deep Purple experimented with string sections and more classical passages of music, Blackmore was inspired by a local band he saw when he was younger. The band wore togas and played rock music with classical rock music. While he recognised it sounded silly to describe, he heard something special in the music, and therefore, it played into a lot of what Deep Purple did.
Afterwards, when they went down a much heavier route, Blackmore thought it would be best to try something more distortion-laden and energetic. He was partly influenced by Mountain, who he heard in a club in Germany and was blown away by.
“I remember being in a place in Germany, and Ian [Paice] and I were out drinking together,” said Blackmore, “In those days, you could go to a club and listen to the new records in their entirety that had just come out. Paice and I heard, ‘Mississippi Queen’, and we both went white! We were thinking, ‘Who the hell is that?!’ It had such a big sound! For three guys, it was incredibly heavy.”
This passion needs to be present on every album that he makes. As such, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Blackmore’s least favourite Deep Purple album is one where he feels as though the band were passive when making it. When discussing their 1970 album Fireball, he spoke about how he felt as though there was no direction and nothing particularly driving the band as they made it.
“A complete flop, disastrous,” said Blackmore when talking about Fireball, “There was just nothing on it worthwhile talking about. I can’t even remember any of the songs.” He continued talking about the album, discussing a select few of the tracks and why they didn’t feel right to him. One of these songs was ‘No No No’, which he called “banal.”
“’Demons Eye’ was like a riff; ‘Farmer’s Daughter’ was a spoof on country and western, ‘No No No’, to me, was bordering on banal,” he said, “People liked the track ‘Fireball’, but that was just fast with a bass drum. And an air-conditioning unit.”
So long as there is passion and intent behind his music, Ritchie Blackmore will be happy with the result. As such, the record he can hardly remember is naturally going to be filled with tracks that he can no longer stand.
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